Eurozone Industry November 2016

Eurozone: Industrial production growth accelerates in November

January 12, 2017

The industrial sector in the Eurozone improved in November, growing at the fastest pace seen in 3 months. Industrial production increased a seasonally-adjusted 1.5% from the previous month, above October’s 0.1% increase. The reading notably overshot market analysts’ expectations of a timid 0.5% rise.

November’s acceleration reflected rebounds in the production of non-durable consumer goods and intermediate goods. In addition, energy production ticked up from the previous month. However, output of capital and durable consumer goods deteriorated. On an annual basis, industrial production rose 3.2% in November (October: +0.8% year-on-year).

Among the Euro area economies for which data are available, the largest growth rates in production were recorded in Ireland (+16.3% mom), the Netherlands (+3.5% mom) and Latvia (+2.8% mom). On the flipside, the largest drops were recorded in Greece (-0.9% mom) and Portugal (-0.9% mom). Regarding the region’s largest economies, output grew across the board as expansions were seen in France (+2.2% mom), Germany (+0.3% mom), Italy (+0.7% mom) and Spain (+1.7% mom).

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see industrial production expanding 1.6% in 2017, which is up 0.5 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2018, panelists see industrial production growth stable at 1.6%.